Background and Qualifications
I was the Computer Center Manager and Webmaster for New Mexico State University at Alamogordo, a Community College and branch of NMSU in Las Cruces, NM. I was also the server administrator for NMSU-A's web presence at http://alamo.nmsu.edu. On the side, I also taught up to 4 courses during most regular (spring and fall) semesters since 1993 based on my undesignated degree and years of experience (already!), then further degrees as earned.
I worked in the NMSU-A Computer Center and Computer Services from August 1989 when I became a student at, then landed a part-time work study position in the NMSU-A Computer Center. At that time, we had 30 old Kaypro and IBM brand micro-computers and one IBM System 34 Mini Computer connected to 10 dumb terminals.
I seem to remember seeing a couple of other old computers in a couple of offices back that far too. It was the first semester that the System 34 never got used. I missed out on the joys of starting up the old beast with its whopping 256KB (Not MB, KB!) RAM, 8" floppy disk that really was floppy and hearing the big line printer chatter all day as students printed thier programs.
The July after I started school and went to work in the Computer Center, the college decided to hire a full time regular staff person to be available during outside office hours. I had one year of part time experience in the computer field. Surprisingly, that was enough to land the job.
I accepted the job and continued school part time. I earned enough credit hours for an undesignated Associate degree due to some business school transfer credits from some classes I took in the early 80s. My next degree is an Associate of Applied Science in Microcomputer Technology earned in 1994. I then started taking courses at then Park College, now Park University for my Bachelor's in Management of Information Systems received in 1996.
As the low man on the totem pole, I did much of the grunt work in building a network while my bosses received the credit. It was strange those early years in computer classes that teachers showing students how to log into the network would always point out that I ran the local network by asking me things like "That's right, Stan?" Often, I was studying up to implement the ideas that they wanted to teach even before the teachers would think of teaching things.
My comment about my bosses taking credit should not be mistaken, I'm not complaining. As I've moved up the ladder into management positions, I understand how much work on their part it was to allow me to implement some of our ideas, not solely my own. With very few exceptions, I deeply respect and like all of my past superiors. Thanks to them, I was allowed to "play" for a living. I had to "be there" evenings and weekends with little or nothing to do except research networks and network technologies. I implemented many applications on the NMSU-A network before they became so popular that now they are everyday words like e-mail and web.
With my weakness for computers, it should not be a surprise that I have four working computers in my single occupant home. Except for my computers, I live alone. With the availability of high speed network service, I soon implemented my own little Local Area Network here at home.
I maintain a web server on my DSL connection that hosts a couple of sites that I play with while I have others that I maintain on hosts on faster connections. I maintain my sites with nightly backups and I have a backup server at home to minimize downtime in the event of hardware failures. My pricing is a basic guideline only, as each request for service will be priced for each individual service request.
I can provide several options for web space on my home server or on a commercial hosting site. My current limitation at home is speed of access while size is the primary concern on the commercial hosting sites. I can also provide some CGI programming, support and use of commercially purchased software (on line store or other limited applications). For software written by others, I will need lead time to learn and implement the requested software.
As business income warrants it, I reinvest much, if not most of the fees earned into upgrading my internet connection, servers, and other necessary equipment. Currently, I am non-profit, hosting several areas on my server without payment. Some are non-profit, so I'm hosting their website as a public service and another for my sister's business. No payment, just doing thier sites because I like to and they seem to appreciate it.
I offer small business owners an opportunity to have a web presence. I include standard updates without hassle for $200 a year or less.